


Beyond Light and Knowledge

by amyfortuna



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Moria | Khazad-dûm, ToT: Monster Mash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-25 12:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12531628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: A father tells his daughter the scariest story in all of Arda.





	Beyond Light and Knowledge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elleth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elleth/gifts).



"Daddy, will you tell me a story?"

"Certainly, my little girl, what sort of story would you like?"

"Daddy, tell me a SCARY ONE!"

"Very well! I will tell you the most SCARY STORY OF ALL. 

They say that Eru Ilúvatar, the One, created Ainur, divine spirits both great and small, and that some of these spirits came down into Arda, there to form and mould it into the place it would eventually become: a home for Eru's Children, Elves and Men. 

In these tales, there is a lie that founders all. Were you indeed told, my child, that Eru is the Father of All, that he created every spirit, from the lowliest mortal to the Elder King himself? Then you have been told falsely, and I pray that you will never see the creatures that Eru did not form. 

At the heart of Arda itself, amid dark and endless tunnels of stone, they wind about the core of the world as if to strangle it from the heart. Beyond the deepest delving ever made, they gnaw hungrily at the earth, seeking a way up, eager to emerge and devour all. 

For those creatures were trapped in our world at the beginning of time, and have not been able to escape back to the Timeless Halls from whence they came. They know only hunger, and are sated only by devouring all: flesh, stone, fire, and spirit itself. Nothing that encounters them ever lives to tell the tale. It is said that they are the one thing that Balrogs fear. 

Imagine, if you will, everything that causes fear: Balrogs with their whips of flame, dragons sweeping down with fire and death on their breath, the fury of the Orc-armies in wrath, the wild frenzy of the wolves, the terror of the Nazgûl, the cold glance of the Necromancer himself. All of those together are less than the earth-gnawers rising up from the depths to torment the unhappy earth. 

Beware the eldritch monsters from the deepest deeps of the world, young one! For when the Dagor Dagorath is come, they too will rise, and feast on your very flesh!"

**Author's Note:**

> *ensue tickling and giggles*


End file.
